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A friend of mine got in touch at the weekend. His name is Donnie Chisholm. He is in Finland training to be a wilderness guide. Here are some words from him:

The hair inside my nose had long since frozen, the fat from the dogs’ meat solidifying the arms of my fleece. The bucket of food felt heavier all the time, even though I had given most of its contents away. It had been 24 days since I last saw the sun and as my head torch died from the cold I thought about my life and how it had lead me here.

I had grown up in Wester Ross and started climbing when I was fourteen. This would lead to a life less ordinary. A life of avoiding a steady job so that I could climb, ski, mountain bike, fish, kayak, scramble or just go walking in the hills whenever I felt like it. Eventually I found Finland and started to train as a wilderness guide.

So there I was, on a husky farm in Lapland after the longest day of the season. We had seen 541 people go round our track, and I had enjoyed it, but I was knackered…maybe it’s time to look for some work back in Scotland…